DESCRIPTION: This could be the ultimate relic of the Reich ever found. In our estimation nothing is quite as dramatic and astounding as this piece of Third Reich history. Originally, there were four of these chairs carved by master wood carvers of the Tyrol. They were presented to Reichsführer- Heinrich Himmler on behalf of his loyal staff and officers of the L.A.H. Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, the elite bodyguard regiment, which not only guarded its namesake, who was the German Führer, but also its immediate superior H. Himmler. The artist who designed this masterpiece of the carvers art was none other than Karl Maria Willigut, who has been called Himmler’s Lord of the Runes. He was also referred to as Heinrich Himmler’s ‘Rasputin.’ That name was in fact placed because this mystic mover had for sure become an ever-influential personage and soothsayer extraordinaire, and possibly the innermost ideological presence in the SS organization. A follower and adherent of the teaching of the occult mystic Guido von List, born December 10, 1866, in Vienna. He was the greatest influence on Himmler over the decision to take over the 17th-century castle at Wewelsburg. Himmler first visited this castle in 1933 accompanied by Willigut and immediately he started to put high-flown ideas into the imaginations of the RFSS as to the conceptualization of this wonderful edifice.
“The Center of the World” was the theme that Willigut often repeated and it is certain that this advisor convinced the Reichsführer of a concept of quasi-pagan practices and the conception of a knightly order of the Schutzstaffel (). Shortly after in 1934 the castle was transferred to the SS and became the headquarters of the Society for the Promotion and Care of German Cultural Monuments and then into an academy for the ideological education of -Führer (leaders)-an Ordensburg of sorts.
The Wewelsburg castle was the central inner sanctum of the SS movement. From our inquiries investigations and interviews with townspeople in the Tegernsee area we have determined that the castle was where the chairs were to be delivered. The proposition has been forwarded that these four chairs were the first of 12 chairs for the 12 knights of the Wewelsberg Order. But, this is fairly loose speculation almost eradicated by the large H H. seen in the central portion of the carving. We think this indicates a more personal aspect. It is probably correct to say that these chairs were for the Reichsführer’s personal office in the uppermost floor of the tower. In any case they were almost surely meant for the order castle; however, the quirk of fate that retained them in Himmler’s home in Gmund was obviously the fact that Herr Himmler rather liked them in the setting at his home at Gmund am Tegernsee.
This house is still there today virtually unchanged and you can see it in the attached pictures--then and now. One picture shows an assemblage of the Reichsführer with his daughter Gudron and General Karl Wolf, and here we have a rare appearance of none other than Karl Maria Willigut, who, at that time, was known as Karl Maria Weisthor, and this was the name he used when he joined the SS. There are very few pictures of Weisthor. It was a kind of special designation because of Himmler’s admiration of the old academic and because he had previously held the colonel’s rank in the Imperial Austrian Army and had distinguished himself in the heat of battle.
Also seen in this picture are three Allgemeine- troopers from the LAH. I recently visited this house for the second time and it is still the same except the cement stairs seen in the picture have fallen into ruin. I mention this house because this was the last place that the chairs had reposed while still all together in Germany.
Where did they go after Germany’s disastrous defeat? Well, they were still in the Himmler home neatly packaged and ready to be sent somewhere? At that point there cometh the tax men; those revolting little creatures who come hell or high tide who will invariably seek to collect what they think is their due. On the 20th of February 1951 when the taxing authorities of Miesbach finally got their act going after a few de-Nazification changes, they decided to auction off articles in Himmler’s home to satisfy the so-called property-tax obligations owed by the Reichsführer. One of the persons attending this auction was a Mr. Robert Schermer, who in 1945 to 1952 was the U.S. resident-officer assigned to this tiny Bavarian town of Miesbach near Tegernsee, south of Munich. The chairs could not be kept by the then-present owners of the ground house as they were classified as forbidden articles by the new liberal government under the de-Nazification rulings.
The tax collectors were in a real quandary because some extreme left, if not actually communist, administrators installed by the Americans in 1945 wanted to have the chairs immediately destroyed! After much-tortured deliberation it was finally agreed that they could be sold to persons who were recognized as bona fide collectors and there could possibly be museum interest as well for future displays recalling the ‘horrors’ of the SS and the NSDAP. There also was a fast avenue to get rid of at least one of the chairs and that was to sell it to Herr Schermer, the U.S. resident-officer who had expressed an interest in at least one chair.
They sold one to him with the usual German paper pile (documentation). The price agreed on was 75 DM and Mr. Schermer was able to waltz off with an item that might bring a king’s ransom in the future. A Deutschmark was equivalent to about 25 cents U.S. at that time. One of the documents was signed by the finance minister for the Finanzamt (office) in Miesbach. They made sure that Schermer agreed to export the piece immediately and he signed the Quittung (receipt) after promising he would do that.
Now, what happened to the other three chairs? When one of the later owners who purchased it from Robert Schemer questioned him about it he said he didn’t know and he assumed they might have been destroyed, but added that he believed this to be unlikely knowing something about the tight-fisted Bavarians and especially Bavarian tax collectors. Later, I found out what did happen, but I will reveal that later within this article.
The chair that Schermer sent home stayed with him until about 1970 when he decided to sell it. A man named Peter Carlson, who lived in Florida near Mr. Schermer, made an offer and successfully bought it. Later, he sold it to the proprietors of a Buffalo, NY military-relic shop.

Then, in 1985, tragedy struck and my house totally burned down in a fire caused by an improperly-installed wood burner stove and one of the fatalities was the Himmler chair. It was completely consumed and it was nearly the only piece that was.
So important was this chair to persons who know of it that one wealthy collector came to the scene of the fire and sifted the ashes for several days trying to find some small part of what he considered to be a sacred relic! Nothing, however, was found.
So that was the literal end of my Gmund Stuhl. However, the story does not end there. In the winter of 1992 I received a rather strange phone call from a man who lived in Bad Tolz, the town where the famous SS-Junkerschule was located. This man, who would not at this point reveal his name, but said he knew from some of my inquiries in the nearby town of Miesbach that I was the owner of the chair that was sold to Robert Schermer back in 1951. At this point I interrupted to tell him the fate of the chair. The man seemed genuinely saddened to hear this tragic news, but at this point he made a startling and fantastic revelation to me. He said he was very familiar with the saga of the Himmler chairs and that he know where the other three were and one of them was in the home of a friend in Tegernsee not far from the area where the one that I had originated. He also could provide me with the name of the man who designed the pieces and the identification of the masterful carver, who finally created them. I suspected that this man was an official or retired official of the Miesbach county from the way he talked. Later, it turned out to be a good guess as he identified himself as a minor official on the planning board there.
He knew where all three chairs were, but believed I might be able to buy one of them at present. He didn’t reveal to me anything about the present whereabouts of the other two and in fact he said he would handle negotiations between myself and the man who might sell his. All this was a surprise to me as at this point I didn’t even know that there was more than one chair. So with just this much of a lead I embarked for Germany and the beautiful Tegernseeland. The negotiations were long, but enjoyable in that they took several days, while I enjoyed every minute of my time in this Bavarian paradise.
After successfully bargaining for this wonderful treasure I made arrangement for its being shipped from Munich to the U.S. and once more I have one of the Grossesthul of the Reichsführer standing in my living room. Someday I may try to get my Bad Tolz Kamerad to attempt to negotiate for another chair, but I don’t hold out hopes for this possibility. The persons holding the others are rather well to do and just don’t need the money. As to the documentation that was with the original Schermer purchase, some will know and recognize that paper, when in piles seldom burns completely. It generally singes at its edges and often survives the greatest conflagration. There were four documents concerning the sale to Mr. Schermer from the finance office of Miesbach. They were badly damaged, but still recognizable and I have copies of them in my archives. They show with Teutonic thoroughness and detail this sale of the Geschnitzt Stuhl from the address of Heinrich Himmler in Gmund am Tegernsee. In another place its says: “Stuhl mit SS Ruhen.”
The Meaning of the Runes on the Himmler Chair.
The runes carved magnificently on the side portions or rails of the chair are as follows:
Left side reading down: the victory runes shown side by side that came to represent the Shutzstaffel or SS organization. Next is the swastika or Hakenkreuz. This is the one sign with the strongest effect on people even before Hitler’s Reich. Everywhere where people of western culture lived this sign appeared. It was also continuously used by other cultures throughout history. People stood in awe of this swastika and used it religiously and culturally. It was the sun wheel to the Teutonic people and it is the symbol of productive life made from Lagen Runen, which denotes discipline and righteous life, forever turning like a producing mill wheel turns of the Hakenkreutz. It is said that it was used as a hail sign by the ancients and it results from the wheel cross that has its meaning being God’s rule over the world and has from time immemorial been a talisman of good fortune.
The Hagel Rune
The all-surrounding Hagel. It literally means “I destroy!” The ancient Teuton believed that through the destruction of the enemy overall peace is achieved. Note, for example, that when the Germanic Sippe, or tribes, defeated the army of the Roman Empire at the Battle of the Teutobergerwald peace was in fact achieved for nearly a half century. This rune can be seen on the side of the SS-Ehrenring, as well. Very meaningful to the ideology.
The Rune of Life of Man
Its lifted arms depict the birth of a living creature. If the arms point down it indicates the cessation of life (death). Interesting that the leftists of the 1960’s used the “death symbol” for peace. This symbol was also used in the upraised form by the Ahnenerbe, the office of ancestral heritage, as their symbol that was worn on a patch that can be seen on their uniform sleeves.
The Right Side of the Chair
The first symbol seen is the double blitz or runes of victory. The symbol of the SS.
The “Rod” Rune
This is the symbol of male species’ strength to the ancients. It also can be a form of the rune of life previously mentioned, but with extra outstretched arms. Here it has been said that this symbolized the service and reverence of man to his God either Christ or “Allfather,” possibly one in the same.
The Lilie (Lily)
Very common in various coats of arms. The Christians made it a sign of purity, but in the bronze age it was a sign of generative power and the will to create and is related to the Wendhorn, the fruit-carrying sign. The lilie is flame tongued between two cradle-like forms held by a vertical tie. This is a successor sign. The lilie is the heraldic symbol of Germanic peoples. The location of the Irminsul, a tree-like effigy, was near Horn at the Externstein until it was destroyed by Charlemagne “Karl the Great” as the first act of the Diet of Worms during the Saxon and Frankish wars. The Irminsul stands for creation, development, freedom, and life, itself. The ideology and especially to the Ahnenerbe staff they were especially reverent toward the lilie and Irminsul.
The Three-armed Swastika or Drei Bein Hakenkreuz
Possibly a symbol of Blut und Boden, Blood and Soil. In an article about the Isle of Man delivered in Berlin in 1940 the Celticist professor Gehard von Tevenar extolled the Three-armed Swastika as the exaltation of the native Germanic presence, “Germanness.” He talked about the varient with three legs as used by the people of the Isle of Man and known as a Triskeleon in ancient times. This symbol suggests the act of running and running symbolized man’s energy and determination. In ancient Greece (also, an Aryan culture group) there was a symbol similar to the one used on the Isle of Man. This was also a Triskeleon that was often used on the shields of warriors. It depicted three women’s legs in a swastika pattern.
The Lebensbaum or Tree of Life
This is the central pattern and theme situated in the middle of the carvings. This is the most important of the symbols that are depicted here. This is the Lebensbaum sometimes illustrated as a tree and often as a plant as seen here. In any case, the plant suggests the growth of the tree and the possibly intended parallel would indicate the growth of the SS organization within the Thousand Year Reich. To the ancient Teutons the universe is borne in the limbs and branches of trees. The Lebensbaum was “The World Tree’ or “Yggdrasil.” Traditionally, the actual tree was thought to be an ash tree that would link the sky, earth, and even hell. It was on such a world ash that Odin hanged for nine nights, according to Norse and Germanic mythology. Yggr is one of the many names of Odin. The fact that this young version of Yggdrasil is seen here is understandable because trees belong to the organisms that have the highest life expectancy. Many types live hundreds, even thousands, of years. The implication here as noted is that this foretells of the SS and NS ideology living on for thousands of years, as well.
The Ring
The ring is seen with the Lebensbaum surmounting it. The ring stood for continuation (eternal life). The sumpolism of the ring in SS ideology cannot be underestimated. The Ehrenring was the most respected and revered article that could be earned and received with all of its own runic symbolism in evidence. The ring or the letter ‘O’ that actually was personified by the Odel rune was the symbol of the beginning of life: the fraternity symbol and female regeneration. It also personified kinship and it stood for homeland, family, soil, etc. The oak leaves (der Heilege Eichenlaub) that abound on the chair legs and support the central design of ring and the Lebensbaum are one of the oldest items of Germanic symbolism, standing for strength and unity (again, the importance of trees to the heroic state).
This then gives the reader some idea of how when all assembled these designs culminate in Karl Maria Weisthor’s creation for his leader and confidant, Heinrich Himmler. Thanks to the enthusiastic and avaricious zeal of the tax collectors of Miesbach and the interest possibly engendered by thought of future profit by Mr. R. Schermer, plus my Bad Tolz contact we have a relic of great and historical significance here in the U.S. once again. This renowned relic is huge and heavy and our consigner realized just how heavy when he got the shipping bill.
As to the measurements, the back of the chair from floor to the top measures about 62 inches and from the outside of the arms (one to the other) it measures 33 inches. The width from the outside of the runic side rails across is 28 inches. The length of the arm rests measures 27 inches. The seat with frame is 23 x 28 inches. The seat is constructed with cross-caning rattan material beautifully executed. The wood is quite naturally oak (der Heilige Deutschen Baum), the Holy German Tree. The last-mentioned item of perhaps the most importance are the letters “h h” for Heinrich Himmler, the man who once treasured these chairs. If indeed the runic and symbolic designs have powers beyond our imaginative possibilities, who knows, but that the Reichsführer- may be already sitting in the first one that disappeared in that devouring conflagration in New York State.
The chair remains possibly the largest and most impressive Third Reich relic ever found and without a doubt the most researched and clearly this is of importance to the history of the turbulent era that history records as the Third Reich.

PRICE: Price on Request

Late-breakng news! A noted recently deceased collector by the name of William Blynn had read the narrative above and decided that he would follow the plan that I had laid out and he commissioned a representative to go to Germany and attempt to purchase one of the two chairs still in Germany. He was obviously successful in this effort and until his death he privately owned and admired the wonderful chair Nr. 3. I never knew this until I was advised recently. The collection was broken up and dispersed to several auction houses; however, this chair was sold by Mr. Blynn to another collector, who decided that Germania should have it and it was--after a tough negotiation--bought again and now Germania International is the proud owner of two Himmler chairs. Taking into consideration that Germania paid much less for the second chair it will be offered at a very special price and MUCH less than the one described above.